The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Time for a new Head Gasket??

So heres the deal. I pulled the dipstick in my 235 (1961) today and the oil is watery with white in it. From my experience this means that I am in need of a new head gasket. I had the oil changed 2 weeks ago. This worries me a bit, but I think that I caught it in time to fix it before really bad things happen.

Now, here's the qestion. How hard is it to swap a head gasket on this motor. Seems to me like it should be pretty easy to do. Pull the valve cover, take off the rockers, pull the push rods, take off the head, and there I am? I am going to exchange the head at the local machine shop for a rebuilt one, is this OK? Should I have my head rebuilt and reuse it? I am also going to buy new pushrods and rockers since I will be in there anyway. Is there any other things I should do while I have the head off?

Any thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated. I have never done a head gasket before but there is a first time for everything and this seems like a good time to learn.

Fort Knox,

If you have a head gasket leaking into the crankcase (oil), and you have run the engine for any length of time, the oil will be creamy white like a vanilla milkshake.

Watery, meaning not viscous, might be misleading. Streaks of white, or globs of white can happen from little use, or not getting the rig up to full temperature.

A head gasket failure between water jacket and pan isn't usually the case. A blow between cylinders is much more common, and this might intrude into the water jacket.

The conditions that would only involve the cooling system and a path to the pan, I think, would be rare.

It sounds like you "want" to do this task come hell or highwater..go for it!

If you don't want to do it..test further. A conventional "blown" head gasket will show itself in a whole bunch of obvious ways.

Stuart

I would do a dry/wet compression test first and fully diagnose the problem.

what is dry wet compression test??

Do you get any white smoke out the exhaust? Pull the plugs & check for any coolant on them or in the cylinder. You have the procedure pretty down pat but you will want to pull the manifolds too. If you leave the exhaust pipe hooked up they will set aside. You will probably want to keep the same head & have a machine shop do a valve job & check for cracks & surface grind it.

Knox;
1. Pull all your plugs
2. Starting with No.1 or No 6 Cylinder screw in the compression gauge and take a dry reading from each of the cylinders
3. Make sure you write down the readings
4. Repeat the process, only this time, squirt a small amount of oil into each cylinder before you crank the engine. Approx. a teaspoon full
5. Compare your readings.
- the dry readings should be lower than the wet readings, if not this could indicate bad rings
- two cylinder next to each other indicate the head gasket is blown between the two cylinders
- My 48-51 sop manual says compression should be about 110 Lbs. with all cylinders within 5-10 punds of each other

Another quick test is take the radiator cap off (engine cold) and fill it to the top. Start the engine and let it run for a while.If the gasket is leaking, you might be able to see air bubbles come up.

I am going to go out and check the plugs. I filled the radiator this morning so I will cheack the level to see if it is down. I called a machine shop and they told me that it would cost $250 to rebuild the head, new seats, valve job, surface grind. Is that reasonable? Thanks for the tips, I will do my best to try them all!

your white or wet water in pan or on dipstick depending on how much is almost normal. Like someone said if it is driven cold alot... what it is is condensation buildup. That happens alot on older engines that dont have pcv valves...... if its not mixed into the oil...hence like someone else said like a milkshake,,,i wouldnt worry about it too much... the thing ya can do is check the breather on the valve cover...and also the downdraft tube to see if its not restricted...

ALL IS WELL!!!! I have decided that I was being a little bit overzealous. The oil is clean and black. I pulled the drain plug, no creamy stuff or anti-freeze. I pulled all of the plugs and none of them were dirty or coolant covered. I checked and re-checked the oil, clean and black. My anti-freeze levels have not dropped since this morning. With the cap off there are no bubbles coming up when engine is running. I think that all is well and I was overly concerned. Thanks for all of the advice, I really appreciate it. This page is a Godsend.

For future reference Knox, $250 is a good price

if you are concerned about coolant in the oil inject shop air into each cyl and watch radiator for bubbles be sure to fill full of coolant to top of neck each cyl will have to be at tdc or engine will spin...doc

I had this problem in my '57. The draft tube was in place, but the oil fill cap was not vented. So even though the engine could get to operating temps, the engine could not breathe. I replaced the fill cap and have not seen the build-up since.